A pet screening service charge is a one-time fee you pay a third-party platform to build a digital risk profile of your pet when you apply for rental housing. On PetScreening, the most widely used service, the charge is $30 by credit card or $25 by ACH bank transfer, and that single payment covers your whole household rather than each animal.1PetScreening. Applicant and Resident FAQs The fee goes to the screening company, not to your landlord, and it is separate from any pet deposit, pet fee, or monthly pet rent your lease might require.
What the Fee Pays For
The charge funds a standardized assessment that produces a FIDO Score, a housing-specific risk rating from 0 to 5 paws. A 5-paw score signals the lowest risk; a 1-paw score signals higher risk; a 0-paw score means your pet has a limiting factor (such as a breed, weight, or bite-history restriction) that conflicts with the property’s policies.2PetScreening. I Would Like a Better Understanding of the FIDO Score
The score weighs breed, sex, age, weight, behavior history, and how well you have cared for the animal, including vaccination status, spay/neuter status, and training. The landlord sees the score alongside the full profile and decides whether to approve the pet, sometimes adjusting the pet deposit or pet rent based on the risk level.2PetScreening. I Would Like a Better Understanding of the FIDO Score Some property managers use the score to set tiered pet rent, so a 5-paw dog pays the base rate while a 2-paw dog pays more.
A profile stays active for one year from activation. If you move to a different rental property during that year, your active profile transfers to the new landlord at no additional cost, and you can share it with pet daycares, groomers, and pet-friendly hotels. Renewal costs the same $30 or $25, with a $5 discount for renewing early.1PetScreening. Applicant and Resident FAQs
How the Screening Charge Differs From Pet Deposits and Pet Rent
The screening fee is often the smallest line item in a pet-friendly lease, but it is only one of several charges landlords commonly impose. Confusing them leads to unpleasant surprises at move-in.
- Pet screening fee: A non-refundable charge of roughly $25 to $30 paid to the screening platform, not the landlord. It creates the profile and generates the FIDO score.
- Pet deposit: A refundable lump sum held by the landlord to cover potential pet damage beyond normal wear and tear. You get it back at move-out if the unit is undamaged. Caps vary by state.
- Pet rent: A recurring monthly charge, commonly $10 to $100, added to your base rent for keeping an animal on the property.
- Pet fee: A one-time, non-refundable payment to the landlord that covers general wear from having a pet in the unit. Not all landlords charge this.
You may end up paying some combination of all four. Most landlords will not process your deposit or add pet rent to the lease until the screening profile is complete, which is why the small fee tends to come first.
Is the Pet Screening Charge Legal?
Pet screening fees generally fall into the same regulatory bucket as rental application fees and background checks. Most jurisdictions treat them as non-refundable administrative costs that landlords can pass along to applicants, provided the charge is disclosed before payment and reflects the actual cost of the service. The legal landscape is shifting, though. A growing number of states and cities now require detailed fee transparency in rental applications, and some have moved to prohibit certain categories of fees or cap their amounts.
The distinction between a third-party platform fee and a landlord-collected fee matters here. When your landlord directs you to PetScreening and you pay the platform directly, the landlord is not marking up the charge. If a landlord collects the screening fee themselves and forwards it, check whether your state limits how much a landlord can add above actual cost.
Expect the fee to be non-refundable even if your rental application is denied. The charge pays for the service of creating and evaluating the profile, not for a guaranteed housing outcome, the same way a credit check fee is not refunded when a landlord picks a different tenant. If you’re applying to several properties at once, remember that your active profile transfers for free during the one-year window, so you only need to pay once.
When You Don’t Pay the Fee
Two profile types cost nothing. If you have no animals, some landlords require a no-pet profile where you attest that you don’t own a pet, agree not to pet-sit or foster, and acknowledge that you’ll complete a paid pet profile if you later get an animal. There is no charge for this.3PetScreening. Non-Pet Owners
Assistance animal profiles are also free. If your animal is a trained service animal or an emotional support animal prescribed by a healthcare provider, the Fair Housing Act prohibits housing providers from charging any fee or deposit for the animal.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 3604 – Discrimination in the Sale or Rental of Housing On the screening platform, you select the assistance animal option, upload documentation from a licensed healthcare professional confirming your disability-related need, and the system skips the payment screen. The landlord gets confirmation that the animal qualifies, but no FIDO risk score, because the animal is not subject to pet policies.5U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fact Sheet on HUD Assistance Animals Notice
One boundary to know: the Fair Housing Act does not cover every landlord. Owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units are exempt from the Act’s requirements, so a small landlord living in the building may not be federally required to waive pet fees for an assistance animal. Many state and local fair housing laws close this gap with broader protections.
The documentation you provide does not have to disclose your diagnosis or describe your condition in detail. It needs to confirm that you have a disability and that the animal provides necessary support, and it should come from a provider with a genuine therapeutic relationship with you rather than an online form mill.5U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fact Sheet on HUD Assistance Animals Notice
What to Have Ready So You Only Pay Once
The fee is non-refundable, and verification delays usually come from mismatched information between what you type and what’s on the documents you upload. Gather the following before you start:
- Rabies vaccination certificate: showing the vaccination date, expiration date, and administering veterinarian’s name and contact information.
- Pet details: breed, weight, age, sex, and spay/neuter status, all of which feed into the FIDO score.
- Photos: clear, recent images of the animal, used to verify appearance and breed.
- Behavior history: honest answers about bites, property damage, or off-leash incidents. A false answer that comes out later can trigger lease termination.
- Training certifications: proof of obedience training or credentials like the AKC Canine Good Citizen, which can improve the score.
If your dog’s breed commonly appears on landlord or insurer restriction lists, ask the property manager about their specific policy before you pay. A 0-paw score triggered by a breed restriction will block approval, and the fee doesn’t come back.